JORGE M PLANAS

Lagos de Batan promotes a new model of living by combining the principles of New Urbanism with the historical, cultural and climatic conditions of the area.  It is a sustainable community that integrates residential, commercial and recreational open spaces that are interconnected, memorable, comfortable and safe.

Lagos is approximately 56 hectares and consists of four residential communities with its own mixed-use Town Center.  The plan is organized in into an organic network of Venetian canals, lakes and islands creating a system of waterways that plays multiple roles.  Among them; providing urban sectors with extensive and picturesque views, recreational opportunities and create a continuous ecological system.  One of the innovative aspects of the design is that the community has been planned as an amenity in itself where parks, squares, gardens and buildings are interspersed with lakes, canals and islands composed into an inviting system of civic spaces.

Lagos reintroduces traditional building design with traditional building materials composing various buildings and homes into courtyard spaces, with arcades, galleries, and balconies. Lagos offers a sustainable alternative planning modelto the current development pattern found within the region.

Pedra Branca was selected as one of eighteen founding projects worldwide by the Clinton Climate Initiative for their Climate Positive Development Initiative.  This program supports the development of large-scale urban projects that demonstrate that cities can grow in ways that are "climate positive."

It is a high-density, mixed-use town center located in Florianopolis, Santa Catarina. Designed to be a sustainable, pedestrian-friendly hub.  The development will be a first for the region and will provide a model for the design and construction of high-density, walkable town centers throughout Brasil. This compact, sustainable developmentoffers a local alternative to suburban, sprawl-style development, creating a pedestrian-oriented community for residents and visitors and enabling the preservation of the region's open space and agricultural land.

Pedra Branca's scale is unprecedented throughout Brasil, as the 120-acre development features residences for 30,000 people, 2,000,000 square feet of commercial development and civic amenities including a library, cultural center and hotel. The development is concentrated within two neighborhoods, each of which is designed to enable residents to fully access their retail, commercial and civic needs within walking distance of their homes. A university and an industrial area, with a focus on light industry and technology, border the two neighborhoods and offer additional employment opportunities.

The architecture of Pedra Branca will be designed in consultation with the LEED standards, in order to achieve maximum environmental sustainability and efficiency. While a range of building types will be present throughout the community, the majority of the buildings will be multi-story, brick structures, with restaurants and shops on the ground levels and apartments and offices above. Many of these buildings wrap interior courtyards, which offer private and semi-private green space to complement the community's public green space. Green roof gardens will also be widely featured, and all parking will be accommodated in underground lots, located below each block.

This Miami Historic home was brought back to life while respecting its original architectural identity. White barrel concrete roof tiles were reintroduced, replacing the flatter asphalt shingles. Impact casement storm windows in gray aluminum replaced the dated jalousies, yet its architectural integrity of clear open glass remained. The porch steps were widen landing onto a small terrace creating a more inviting entrance. The clear glass front door mimics the historic screen door design that was lost long ago.

The home is blanketed in white, appropriate for Miami's sunny climate while casting a play of light and shadow throughout its exterior. The driveway design is clean and simple, complimenting its mid century roots while making the home feel current.

Developed as the Lagos de Batán's pilot home, was the first built in this community. Located opposite to the Delago's community entrance, oriented overlooking the plaza. The fresh and contemporary style, is influenced by classical design and the vernacular architecture of Guayaquil. The court binds all indoor spaces, which is accessed directly from the main entrance and features a pool with gargoyles that frames the garden. Besides, it is crossed by a circulation area delineated by a pergola that ends in a semi covered space. On the ground floor are distributed social spaces and service, and upstairs, a main room and four bedrooms.

Aires de Batan is situated in the suburban fringe of Guayaquil, Ecuador.  The highway leading to here is littered with suburban sprawl consisting of gated residential communities, shopping strip centers, andhighway oriented businesses.  This pattern of development is unsustainable and is largely responsible for the many problems, includingtraffic congestion.  Following the principles of New Urbanism, Aires de Batan proposes to offer a community filled with its own character, offering mixed-use, pedestrian friendly, transit oriented, civic buildings and spaces, with an inter-connected network of street. A network of canals and lakes will connect, secure and embellish the neighborhood while functioning as a drainage system of the land.  There will be a choice of life styles, from the lively urban to the peaceful rural. Aires de Batan will develop into a community with an inherent value that balances social, security, economic and environmental needs.

Casa del Sol will be resort community located off the west coast of Ecuador near the town of Ayangue. The property consist of just over 27 hectares with a low flat center that slopes up onto ridges with a more rough terrain. The site has two beautiful beaches framed within the coastal cliffs. The main obstacle in designing Casa del Sol was that the coast contained all the views which were not visible to most of the property, thus limiting the value and potential for this community. To compensate, a lake was carved out from the low flat center deep into the site. This allowed for a new beach front to be replicated providing an amenities of value that now provided views throughout the site.

Three villages were shaped and named for their main defining features which included the Mountain Village, the Beach Village, and the Sunset Village. Each village integrated a civic-minded component to serve as its center such as community club or hotel. Other civic space and parks were tailored to the sites natural features, creating wonderful opportunities for its residents and visitors to appreciate the natural beauty of this special place.

The recreational sports club was located at the main entrance anchoring the village center. From here, a small marina opens up the new lake stretching out to the existing beach. A botanical garden island sits in the center of the lake, with homes fronting one side creating a beautiful backdrop to the newly created lake beachfront, and water villas nestled quietly on the opposite rural side. The lake ends at the edge of the natural beach onto a beach club with a magnificent swimming pool wrapping two large gazebos.

A narrow road connects all the villages together and a more extensive network of trails and pedestrian paths complete the neighborhood structure.

Architecture was inspired to respond to the local climate. Incorporating features with generous outdoor spaces such as terraces, galleries, balconies, and porches, with rooms that opened to the outdoors. An extensive variety of unit types and some with very unique conditions were produced for Casa del Sol, among them; courtyards, water villas, and tree houses. Materials and colors were selected to compliment the site in earth tones using wood, rocks and stones.

Central Park is a unique project as it integrates New Urbanism and Green Design by taking an existing reservoir and demonstrates on how to combine the multiple challenges of storm-water management, water purification, energy conservation and urban place making into a single coherent design.

The site is situated within theRio Grande delta in McAllen, Texas, US.  Its 58 acre reservoir is transformed into a Town Center of over 1,000 residences and 200,000 square feet of retail and commercial.  Central Park is filled with various building types, hotels and civic institutions.  They are tightly organized into a traditional network of pedestrian-friendly streets, squares, passages and courtyards.  The heart of the plan is a waterway that flows from the highest point to its lowest level in a meandering path.  It is expected to treat approximately one million gallons of untreated Rio Grande water through a "Living Machine" that uses shade, root mass, micro-organism, fish, filters and waterfalls into potable water.  Many other strategies are incorporated into the design to promote Green Building Design.

The square serves as an entrance to the Plaza Lagos Town Center and to the rest of the communities of Lagos de Batán. It presents a triangular design, delimited by palm trees and covered by grass, with an axis crossing the main entrance.

Porto Baleias will represent a new model for sustainable development, integrating New Urbanist principles and practices of planning with a program oriented to ecological stewardship, economic growth, and social responsibility.

The project will involve the development of no more than 480 hectaeres of a site that includes approximately 900 hectares. The site is situated on the coast of Paulo Lopes in Santa Catarina, Brazil. The proposed development will enable nearly half the site to be assigned to conservation and reforestation or water bodies, mostly under protection and stewardship that can be supported by the economic benefits associated with developing this proportion of the site. Development will take place in a pattern of compact, mixed-use, pedestrian oriented communities that will integrate the full array of best practices in low-impact design, energy efficiency, water management, waste treatment, healthy and ecologically friendly building, and stewardship of an and ecologically important preserve.

There will be one town center located along the north portion of Samborondon Boulevard. The town center will be mixed-use, offering a variety of housing, commercial and offices facilities, serving local residents, neighboring communities, as well as drawing from the region around. A much smaller neighborhood center will be located further south along the Samborondon Boulevard. Eight neighborhoods, more residential in character with a neighborhood center will be interspersed throughout the site. The neighborhood centers will offer commercial opportunities for the immediate neighborhood.
Three of the neighborhoods offer a central green opening to the Daule River. The hill will remain rural, providing more secluded and larger lots for private homes in a village setting.

Hampstead was the first traditional neighborhood development to be built under Montgomery’s adopted SmartCode.  Using the site’s natural features, the design includes three neighborhoods that differ in character while creating an interconnected community based on the discipline of the five-minute walk.  A mixture of housing types gives shape to greens, plazas, and playgrounds designed to promote an active civic environment.

Hampstead differs itself from many other traditional neighborhood in its commitment to the environment and sustainability.  Aside from all the benefits of a typical New Urbanist neighborhood, Hampstead will be built with green building features including maximum energy efficiency, low maintenance, air quality, and water conservation. Residents will have options from local and reclaimed materials, to solar energy, and Energy Star qualified home plans.  The Hampstead plan was designed to preserve the land's old growth trees, waterways, and natural terrain.  It has a 5-acre working, organic farm located at the heart of the neighborhood. The production farm also offers community beds to its residents. The focus is to increase the availability of healthy, local produce in tune with the seasons and educate the wider community on the benefits of sustainable farming.  In addition, over thirty percent of Hampstead's 416 acre master plan is protected as green space.

Senior Project Manager for Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company

Miami 21 is the new zoning code for the City of Miami.  It is the largest-known application of a form-based code.  Miami 21 has already transformed the city by requiring buildings to "behave" and provide opportunities for a pedestrian friendly environment.

Co-directed initial quadrant at Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company.

Hacienda Lagunas offers a regional vision for northeast Panama, by proposing the development of ten compact, walkable villages and the preservation of a significant proportion of open space and farmland. Villages sit on the site’s geographically significant points, linked by an extensive pedestrian and equestrian trail network which also connects to the lakes, mountain peaks and coffee plantations. These natural areas will be preserved and enhanced, with the coffee plantation remaining operational, and the wildlife habitats set aside as preserves.

Known for its untouched coastline, and gentle, sloping vegetation, the island has twelve undeveloped beaches, fifteen square kilometers of forest and one existing fishing village home to about 400 residents. In order to both preserve the existing landscape and offer a compact, sustainable development pattern to the Panama region, the Isla Pedra Gonzalez master plan clusters new development within seven intimate, walkable villages connected by a network of trails and green spaces. This development approach maintains the natural beauty of the island while creating memorable, community-oriented neighborhoods featuring a range of retail, office and housing offerings.